Minnesota Frost seek late-season spark as stars return from IIHF World Championship

This time last year, Minnesota’s PWHL team followed a three-week scheduling break by losing its final five regular-season games — then they went and hoisted the inaugural Walter Cup by winning two five-game playoff series in fifth and final games.

Now the team since named the Frost has reconvened after another long pause for the IIHF World Championship in Czechia. This time they have three regular-season games remaining and are one of three teams competing for the PWHL’s final two playoff spots.

The beginning of the end starts Sunday afternoon against last-place New York at Xcel Energy Center. Currently in fifth place, the Frost are one point behind fourth-place Ottawa and two points behind third-place Boston.

Minnesota will finish with a two-game trip to Ottawa and Boston, the two teams right in front of them.

“We have three games in a week and it’s going to decide our fate,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “If we play well, we’ll keep playing and then we have to just keep that rolling.”

Klee’s team has 10 players back after this IIHF break. Six of them played on the gold medal-winning United States team, which beat Canada 4-3 in overtime in the final. Two played on Canada’s silver-medal team and two played for host Czechia.

Former Gophers star and first PWHL No. 1 overall draft pick Taylor Heise scored a go-ahead, third-period goal, then assisted on Tessa Janecke’s overtime goal that won it all.

Former Gopher and two-time Olympic medalist Kelly Pannek was fourth in tournament scoring with four goals and four assists in seven games.

“I hope that lifts the spirits and keeps them pushing through,” Frost goaltender Nicole Hensley said. “It’s obviously an exciting time for them. We’re excited. We’ve been working hard while they were gone, but we’re excited to have them back.”

Frost defenders Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques played for Canada. Denisa Křížová and Klára Hymlárová played for Czechia.

“We’ve got six girls coming back really happy,” Klee said. “We have four coming back not so happy.”

Presumably, they’ll return better from playing at the highest level of competition, provided nobody comes back slowed because of injury.

“I think that really has raised the pace for them and they’ll come back here and raise the pace for the group,” said Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney, a 2018 U.S. gold-medal winner. “Everyone here has been doing a great job these last three weeks. Once everyone’s back together, we’ll be ready to go.”

The Frost know all about winning elimination and must-win games. In last year’s playoffs, they beat Toronto in three consecutive games after they lost the semifinal series’ first two games on the road. They won Game 4 in double overtime 1-0 to force a deciding fifth game that they also won.

In the finals, Minnesota beat Boston 3-0 in another deciding Game 5.

“It’s playoffs now for us,” Rooney said. “These next three games are like must-win games for us. I think everyone knows that, but we’ve been preparing all year. It’s a similar situation to last year coming down the stretch here that we have to win. So we’ve been here before. We know what it takes. I think it’s just believing in this group and knowing we can do it.”

Klee said his team is in a “great spot” after backing into the playoffs last year while losing those final five regular-season games. Minnesota last played March 30, a 5-2 home victory over Toronto that ended a three-game losing streak.

Sunday’s 1 p.m. game originally was scheduled for Saturday, but was moved because of the Wild playoff game that day.

“We control our own fate now,” Klee said. “If we play well, that should be good to get ourselves in the playoffs. Play the right way. Focus on Sunday. Once that’s done, focus on Wednesday. We did that well last year. We got down to Toronto and we weren’t worrying about trying to win three games. We were worried about trying to win one.”